Policy Watch: Homosexuality I

Hi peeps!
Sun's shining - yaaaay!! I bought new running shoes, so I am really going to hit the road this summer. I will let y'all know how it goes.

Today's topic is kinda serious o. Because of the brouhaha with Ms. California and Perez Hilton over the past two weeks, the issue of gay rights has been front and center in the news here in the US once again. For anybody who does not know, the gay lobby in the United States - in most of the western world actually - is very vocal and aggressive. They want the gay lifestyle to be accorded the same status as the heterosexual lifestyle, and to be granted the same rights - as in marriage. And it looks as if they are winning - 5 states have legalized gay marriage in some form or another, and more states will soon follow.

In Africa in general however, we are not so amenable to this gay rights of a thing. First of all, it is culturally unacceptable, and secondly, it is prohibited in every religion we practice - and we all know that we are a religious people! With the gay rights chorus welling up in the West, it was inevitable that it would come our way. As far as I know the only country to be have legalized gay marriage in all of Africa would be South Africa, and I would attribute that to the strong Dutch influence in that country. The rest of us want to hear nothing of it. In fact, when the first rumblings of a gay rights movement were heard in Nigeria, the response from the government was to try to criminalize the practice - with penalties of up to 5 years in jail. Although I am not sure that bill became law, more recently, the national assembly was debating legislation to prohibit and criminalize same sex marriage - leading to this protest here. Actually, I was quite surprised by the number of groups, alliances, organizations that came out in favor of the gay community.

What that tells me of course is that it is just a matter of time before our society erupts in the war of culture and sexual orientation that the US is currently facing. When that happens, what should be the response? When Christians say hate the sin, love the sinner, what does that mean in the case of gay people? Should they be sent to jail?

As we dwell on this topic, here are a few videos to give you something more to chew on - the first three consist of interviews done by Funmi Iyanda (talk show hostess extraordinaire - does anybody know what she is doing now that her talk show has ended?) with Bisi Alimi - gay rights activist:







If I recall correctly, the dude had to flee the country after giving this interview. In fact, this is what Ms. Iyanda had to say of what happened after the interview aired:

How naïve I was, immediately after the interview aired, Bisi Alimi was thrown out of his home, beaten mercilessly and had to go into hiding. On my part, I got heckled and sent hate mail and letters for supporting homosexuality. My Friday edition was cancelled by the network, the rest of the show was taken off the live format, all my guests and shows from that time are screened and censored and l was banned from ever raising political or certain social issues up until now.

You can read the rest of her blog post on the issue here


The church in Nigeria is a huge proponent of this criminalization push, and I can only imagine their dismay at being faced with this pastor and his church:




Rev. Rowland Jide Macaulay heads up the House of Rainbow church located somewhere in Lagos I believe. CNN did a profile on the church last year, but unfortunately the video is no longer available.

Actually, I found something even better : although it looks like the publicity forced the church to close:




So, what is the answer to this gay rights issue in our society? Criminalization, live and let live, or acceptance? And the church in particular, what does LOVE mean in this situation? Please tell me what you think, I would really appreciate your comments on this matter.

Enjoy!